Interlinking People and Nature through the Technologized Urban Greenway

The project area is located along the Danube River in Budapest, and as a peninsula, has a significant role in the city on an ecological level. In my research, I present the project from the industrial revolution up to the present day. In my concluding remarks, various design ideas for implementation on the peninsula and in its neighborhood were demonstrated. The abandoned Népsziget with its industrial site holds a lot of potential for cultural and environmental development. When it comes to city planning in Budapest the main issue is the decrease of greenfield territories in the suburban areas while the city area has many different sizes of brownfield sites which have a potential for restoration. The other important aspect of the area is its connection with the Danube River that needs to be taken into account because of the newly emerging effort to create resilient riverbanks in cities. I identified two strategies for the development of Népsziget. On a municipal level the connection of public transport, land use, green space character, and its core functions were improved. As a large-scale transportation development, a 5 km long greenway connection was created with the EuroVELO 6 bicycle route which runs along the riverside within the identified brownfield project area. The greenway, accessible for pedestrians and cyclists, has both cultural and educational functions and is digitally connected (through a private network) with the redesigned museum park that replaces the mentioned brownfield site in my plans. A special feature of the program is infrastructure running on renewable energy and providing information about the priority design area and the relationship between the city and water. It also personalizes the space by linking the user\u27s electronic device to the new development area. The Nepsziget urban greenway project took shape through the shared vision of the cooperation of designers such as engineers (landscape design, civil, water construction, electrical), architects, scientists, and artists. It also includes many innovative constructions – solar panels, smart information columns, stormwater management, energy generating pavement, digital info post – that promote the ecological and sustainable functioning of the area. The concept creates a thematic route for active and passive recreation, including a park with cultural and technological innovations. The main positive aspect is the transformation of old, unused, and devastated areas and the provision of new functions

Dufrenne and the Virtual as an Aesthetic Category in Phenomenology

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Esoteric philosophy: Leo Strauss and sociolinguistics

Leo Strauss’ controversial theory of esoteric philosophy, as presented in Persecution and the Art of Writing (1952), sparked a fierce debate. Opponents and proponents of the theory utilised a wide range of perspectives to support their arguments. By investigating esoteric philosophy from a sociolinguistic perspective, this paper introduces a novel perspective to the Strauss dispute.  In PAW Strauss is mistaken regarding esotericism and its role in philosophy. On one hand it is reasonable to endorse Strauss’ persuasive account on the origins of esoteric writing. The Straussian account provides a plausible sociological background as to why philosophy, per se became an esoteric fliedH. On the other hand it seems as Strauss ascribed undue significance to possible clandestine massages that may be found within works of philosophy because philosophy is mostly already done in an esoteric linguistic space

A spatial panel data version of the knowledge capital model

This paper attempts to analyze the impact of knowledge and knowledge spillovers on regional total factor productivity (TFP) in Europe. Regional patent stocks are used as a proxy for knowledge, and TFP is measured in terms of a superlative index. We follow Fischer et. al (2008) by using a spatial-spillover model and a data set covering 203 regions for six time periods. In order to estimate the impact of knowledge stocks we use a spatial autoregressive model with random effects, which allows for three kinds of spatial dependence: Spatial correlation in the innovations, the exogenous and the endogenous variables. The results suggest that there is a significant positive impact of knowledge on regional TFP levels, and that knowledge spills over to neighboring regions. These spillovers decay exponentially with distance at a rate of 8%. Using Monte Carlo simulations we calculate the distribution of direct and indirect effects. The average elasticity of a region's TFP with respect to its own knowledge stock is 0.2 and highly significant. The average effect of all other regions' TFP is about 50% higher, which confirms that the cross-country externalities are important in the measuring of the impact.

The Paradox of Anti-Democratic Arguments: a defence of democratic principles in debate

Conventional approaches in pro- or anti-democratic discourses often scrutinize the efficacy of leadership based on its outcomes, or explore the moral foundations of different systems. Contrary to these approaches, my argument presented in this paper is grounded in the inherent psychological desire to be heard and accepted. I posit that the essence of democracy resides in free discussion — a value even embraced by committed anti-democrats in the context of debates, as their acknowledgment hinges on it. This article presents an argument, developed based on my experience in actual debates called The Paradox of Anti-Democratic Arguments, to counter anti-democratic debaters who question the legitimacy of democratic norms. The article discusses the practical application of the argument in debates and casual discussions, its limitations and highlights the underlying psychological processes that make the argument effective in the context of Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance.

Enriching Metadata for a University Repository by Modelling and Infrastructure: A New Vocabulary Server for Phaidra

Dieser Beitrag erörtert einen der ersten Schritte im Zusammenhang mit der „semantischen Anreicherung“ des Phaidra-Repositoriums der Universität Wien  Zunächst wird in einem technischen Report auf die in einem lokalen Kontext getroffene Auswahl hingewiesen, d.h. auf die Bereitstellung des Vocabularyservers iQvoc anstelle des zuvor verwendeten SKOSMOS, und erläutert die für die Implementierung erforderlichen Entscheidungen hinsichtlich des Designs des aktuellen Tools sowie zusätzliche Funktionen. Anschließend werden einige Modellierungsmerkmale des lokalen LOD-gesteuerten Vokabulars gemäß der SKOS-Dokumentation und den -Best Practices beschrieben, wobei aufgezeigt wird, welche Ansätze zur Bereitstellung eines LOD-KOS im Web verfolgt werden und welche Probleme dabei möglicherweise auftreten können.This paper illustrates an initial step towards the ‘semantic enrichment’ of University of Vienna’s Phaidra repository as one of the valuable and up-to-date strategies able to enhance its role and usage. Firstly, a technical report points out the choice made in a local context, i.e. the deployment of the vocabulary server iQvoc instead of the formerly used SKOSMOS, explaining design decisions behind the current tool and additional features that the implementation required. Afterwards, some modelling characteristics of the local LOD controlled vocabulary are described according to SKOS documentation and best practices, highlighting which approaches can be pursued for rendering a LOD KOS available in the Web as well as issues that can be possibly encountered

Corneal biomechanical response following collagen cross-linking with Rose Bengal-green light and riboflavin-UVA

10 págs.; 9 figs. ; Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 4.0To compare the biomechanical corneal response of two different corneal cross-linking (CXL) treatments, rose bengal¿green light (RGX) and riboflavin-UVA (UVX), using noninvasive imaging.Supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program ERC Advanced Grant agreement no. 294099; Comunidad de Madrid and EU Marie Curie COFUND program (FP7/2007-2013/REA 291820); and the Spanish Government Grant FIS2014-56643-R.Peer Reviewe

Consumer willingness to pay for traditional food products

Reflecting the growing interest from both consumers and policymakers, and building on recent developments in Willingness to Pay (WTP) methodologies, we evaluate consumer preferences for an archetypal traditional food product. Specifically we draw on stated preference data from a discrete choice experiment, considering the traditional Hungarian mangalitza salami. A WTP space specification of the generalized multinomial logit model is employed, which accounts for not only heterogeneity in preferences but also differences in the scale of the idiosyncratic error term. Results indicate that traditional food products can command a substantial premium, albeit contingent on effective quality certification, authentic product composition and effective choice of retail outlet. Promising consumer segments and policy implications are identified. (authors' abstract

Material properties from air puff corneal deformation by numerical simulations on model corneas

19 págs.; 11 figs.; 2 tabs.Objective To validate a new method for reconstructing corneal biomechanical properties from air puff corneal deformation images using hydrogel polymer model corneas and porcine corneas. Methods Air puff deformation imaging was performed on model eyes with artificial corneas made out of three different hydrogel materials with three different thicknesses and on porcine eyes, at constant intraocular pressure of 15 mmHg. The cornea air puff deformation was modeled using finite elements, and hyperelastic material parameters were determined through inverse modeling, minimizing the difference between the simulated and the measured central deformation amplitude and central-peripheral deformation ratio parameters. Uniaxial tensile tests were performed on the model cornea materials as well as on corneal strips, and the results were compared to stress-strain simulations assuming the reconstructed material parameters. Results The measured and simulated spatial and temporal profiles of the air puff deformation tests were in good agreement (< 7% average discrepancy). The simulated stress-strain curves of the studied hydrogel corneal materials fitted well the experimental stress-strain curves from uniaxial extensiometry, particularly in the 0-0.4 range. Equivalent Young?s moduli of the reconstructed material properties from air-puff were 0.31, 0.58 and 0.48 MPa for the three polymer materials respectively which differed < 1% from those obtained from extensiometry. The simulations of the same material but different thickness resulted in similar reconstructed material properties. The air-puff reconstructed average equivalent Young?s modulus of the porcine corneas was 1.3 MPa, within 18% of that obtained from extensiometry. Conclusions Air puff corneal deformation imaging with inverse finite element modeling can retrieve material properties of model hydrogel polymer corneas and real corneas, which are in good correspondence with those obtained from uniaxial extensiometry, suggesting that this is a promising technique to retrieve quantitative corneal biomechanical properties.This work was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program ERC Advanced Grant agreement no. 294099 (erc.europa.eu) to SM; Comunidad de Madrid and EU Marie Curie COFUND program (FP7) 291820 (mvisionconsortium.org/) to NB; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad Grant FIS2014-56643-R (www.mineco.gob.es) to SM; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad Grant FIS2013-49544-EXP (www.mineco.gob.es) to CD; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad FPI Fellowship BES-2015-072197 (www.idi.mineco.gob.es) to AdlH.Peer Reviewe